help 95 grand caravan starter dead?

Hi...

Sure sounds like the battery to me...

Take care.

Ken

Yeah, except the lights stay strong and seem to be fine, so i dunno. Maybe i will get a new battery 1st and see what happens.

Sounds like a typical Nippondenso starter ailment to me...bad/burned/dirty contacts in the solenoid. Don't waste money on a new battery until you check this out.

The soloniod is mounted as part of the starter sounds like it is bad. Give it a wack with a hammer (A small One) while trying to start it

its the starter

I concur with the solenoid diagnosis. I just went through the same thing with the ND starter on my '95 Eagle. It would click when you keyed it (once per attempt) and not engage the starter. Sometimes it would engage the starter, and then apparently the contact would break, resulting in a short starter cycle and it wouldn't start.

Dismount the starter and > The soloniod is mounted as part of the starter sounds like it is bad. Give

This has been a continual problem, as I've said before, with Nippondenso starters since the mid-1970s, when they first ripped off Chrysler's patents to built their version. Now, oddly enough, Chrysler's using the poseurs!

The same thing happened on my 1994 GC years back. It was the contacts. I had the rebuilder do it for me including the re & re. The only thing they did more than replacing the contacts was to put the plunger on a lathe and resurface the contact surface of the plunger so that it was smooth and shiny (not rough and pitted as it WAS).

After that my starter never failed. And I had plenty of warn>I concur with the solenoid diagnosis. I just went through the same

You shouldn't go by the lights. They don't use enough current. Try blowing the horn while you try to start the car.

Why buy a new battery. A) It might just be the connections at the battery or between the starter cable and the starter solenoid. B) If the connections are dirty, it's hard to charge the battery also. Do you have a volt meter. They sell for less than 20 dollars at Radio Shack or Home Depot, get the cheapest digital meter, although analog meters have advantages in some situations. A fully charged battery is

Maybe just put the battery on a 1-amp charger for several hours (24 for a full charge, but you don't need a full charge to start the car) or a bigger charger if you are in a hurry to use the car.

That will charge the battery but unless the connections are clean, it still won't start. Post back.

Remove NOPSAM to email me..

I have a 1998 Grand Caravan Sport with 100k miles and have recently had this problem. Wasn't sure what it was at first, but concur that it's related to the starter. I get it working by rocking the car a couple of times, which "spins the teeth" inside the unit. Once it bypasses the "bad spot", car starts immediately with no problem.

sqdancerLynn wrote:

I'd put money on this being worn out Nippondenso solenoid contacts since this is a known failure mode...

There have been many threads on this topic over the years in this newsgroup and the following site may be of use:

Bob